Water from St. Andrews Episcopal School Lower School, the Jackson campus, has tested for "above-normal" levels of lead.

The school sent a letter to parents Monday, notifying them that the school had hired an environmental engineer certified by the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality to test its water from spigots across the campus. The test showed the presence of lead in the school's water at high levels, above the actionable level of 15 parts per billion, but the school did not release specific test results.

"I want to be as upfront as possible with our community regarding some potentially unsettling news," the letter from Head of School George Penick reads. "St. Andrew’s began installing filtration systems on all sources of potable water before these test results were known. Until point-of-use filtration systems are installed throughout the entire campus, the school will continue to provide purified water dispensers campus-wide. Additional tests for both campuses are planned for the immediate future and at regular intervals throughout the year. We were in contact with the Department of Health over the weekend about this situation and will continue to work closely with it as we remedy this problem."

Head of Lower School Tim Alford said he could not be sure exactly which materials exist where in the school's plumbing, or where exactly the water is being contaminated — within the distribution system or the school's pipes.

"We haven’t talked to anyone who could actually help us parse out the precise root of the levels," Alford said.

Alford said the school has been working with the Mississippi State Health Department, and in talking with state officials, they decided not to release the parts per billion lead found in the water. That is because the samples were taken on Feb. 27, three days after the school cut off the use of all water fountains on campus.

On Feb. 24, MSDH and the city of Jackson recommended extra precautions for children and pregnant women who consume the city's water. After this report, St. Andrew's started using water coolers for drinking water.

"We cut off all the water fountains as soon as we heard," Alford said.

Alford said MSDH told school officials the test would be more accurate if they did not leave the water stagnant in the pipes for so long before testing, so the school will retest the water after the spigots have been used more recently.

"We will do a subsequent round of tests on everything that’s coming out of those filtered fountains before we allow kids to drink from them," said Alford, who is also a parent of a young student.

Liz Sharlot, MSDH spokesperson, said she did not know who spoke to Alford and advised the school that the ppb numbers from their test may not be accurate.

"It's not our data," Sharlot said, stressing that the testing was conducted privately and not by the health department. "We have recommended bottled water and that they do additional testing. We told them we could do it here for $15."

On Tuesday, Sharlot denied anyone at the health department told St. Andrew's officials not to release the test results or that the test would be more accurate if the water was not left stagnant.

When contacted for clarification, Alford said MSDH officials told the school the data may not be accurate and that the school "certainly would want to convey accurate information."

The health department has reduced the cost of testing a water sample from $20 to $15 for customers on Jackson's water supply.

St. Richard Catholic School notified parents of its students in February of the lead-in-water issue, asking them to send water bottles to school with their children.

Beneta Burt, Jackson Public Schools board president, said Feb. 26 that the district will be testing the water in schools, specifically elementary schools, to ensure the safety of the children.

"There have been no reports of unsafe water in the Jackson Public School District," Burt said, but she added that she encourages parents to send their children to school with water bottles.

On Feb. 28, the Department of Health notified the city of Jackson that some water samples taken from its homes in June tested for high levels of lead. The city is hiring an engineer and attempting to update its corrosion control system to alleviate the problem.

Jackson Public Works released the following statement in response to the results of St. Andrew's water test: “We are continuing our assessment of the water distribution system and reviewing what changes need to be made to optimize the plant’s corrosive control treatment plan. As we’ve stated before, the City has notified all critical facilities, daycare centers and schools of the precautions to follow in dealing with the lead in water. All precautionary measures were provided on the City’s website, as well as mailed out to all customers. We’re encouraging all customers to follow the precautions.”

When the public was notified, "St. Andrew’s immediately made sure that all the water used in the kitchen of our Jackson campus was bottled or filtered, shut down all the water fountains, and provided purified water dispensers for students, teachers, and staff," the school letter reads.

Parents of children from St. Andrew's who have questions are encouraged to reach out to Penick and Alford. The lower school is located at 4120 Old Canton Road.